


secret santa

by prettylittlesestras



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Junksen - Freeform, Merry Pitchmas Gift Exchange, Merry Pitchmas Gift Exchange 2018, Pitchmas Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 06:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17157125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettylittlesestras/pseuds/prettylittlesestras
Summary: Emily draws Aubrey's name for Secret Santa.This features a Very Soft (for Emily only, of course) Aubrey and Emily is in a constant state of shock because of how beautiful Aubrey is.





	1. Chapter 1

Emily folds the slip of paper closed and stuffs it into the pocket of her mustard-colored peacoat. She takes a few steps down the long corridor of the humanities wing of Barden University’s Walton Hall. She stops again and retrieves the small piece of paper from her pocket, silently praying that the name inside had somehow changed or that this was all some sort of fever-induced nightmare. _Aubrey Posen_. Nope. Not a dream. Emily shakes her head as she stares down at the name typed boldly in 12 point Helvetica.

“Great,” she mutters under her breath as she resumes her walk from her classroom to her office.

It’s not that she _hates_ Aubrey, she doesn’t even dislike her. Frankly, she's just slightly afraid of her. Images flood Emily’s mind of Dr. Posen stalking through the halls of Barden, signature red grading pen tucked behind her ear and the clicking sound of her stilettos echoing off of the hardwood floor and onto the ears of the students trying desperately to avoid her gaze. Okay, maybe she's more than just _slightly_ afraid of her. 

Aubrey Posen is nothing if not intimidating. She graduated from Barden at the top of her class and was immediately accepted into Barden’s law school where she continued to excel. After graduating, she worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Atlanta for two years and then returned to Barden to serve as a law professor where she’s been teaching for the past three years. She has already earned a reputation amongst the people of the university, students and faculty alike. Students know her as one of the toughest professors in the college, many students never receiving a graded assignment from her without scribbles of red pen covering the work. Teachers know her as a no-nonsense coworker. She cares deeply for her students and their ability to learn the material, but it seems clear to everyone that Aubrey does not work at Barden University to make friends.

Emily is no stranger to academic success, herself. She took college classes during her junior and senior years of high school as part of a dual-enrollment program offered by her school and was able to graduate with her undergraduate degree in humanities at just 20 years old. She went on to get her masters degree in music and is now the youngest professor in the history of Barden University at just 22 years old. In Emily’s eyes, however, her accomplishments seem like nothing compared to Aubrey’s career. She’s the kind of smart and powerful person that Emily has always gravitated towards, but she’s never actually worked up the courage to talk to her other than once saying hello when she passed her on campus (and the time she had to apologize after bumping into her at a staff meeting and narrowly avoiding a coffee-spilling mishap).

Emily opens the door and a slight shiver runs down her spine as the brisk October air hits her face. This is the first week of the year that it's actually felt like autumn, and she couldn't be more excited. While she loves the hot, sunny days of summer, she's always been partial to chilly fall and winter days spent traipsing around the outdoors bundled up in scarves and sweaters or cozy days spent inside keeping warm by a fire.

As she walks, she runs her fingers over the slip of paper and ponders over the name in her pocket. If there is one thing she can be relieved about in this situation, it's that Secret Santa names are drawn in October and she'll have nearly two months to come up with a gift for Aubrey. She approaches the faculty and staff office building on the south side of campus, and much to her surprise, she sees a beautiful blonde woman with a red pen stuck behind her ear struggling to open the door, the large box of binders in her arms preventing her from getting inside. 

_If I'm going to buy her a gift I might as well speak to her before Christmas_ , she thinks regretfully. Emily makes a beeline for the door and holds it open so that the woman can enter. Aubrey looks up to meet Emily's eyes and flashes her quite possibly the most beautiful smile that Emily Junk has ever seen. 

“Thank you,” she says with a sigh of relief. “My students had to turn in these projects today, and I usually have one of my TA’s helping me, but it seems as if they've both come down with something.”

“Oh, no problem,” Emily chirps in response. They both smile and nod as if to say goodbye and go their separate ways, but when both women walk toward the same elevator, they give each other a knowing grin. They each press the buttons for their respective office floors, and when the elevator reaches the fourth floor, Aubrey exits. Before the doors close, she turns around back around to look at Emily. 

“Thanks for grabbing the door for me. It was nice to meet you—”

“Emily”

“It was nice to meet you, Emily. I'm Aubrey. Hopefully I'll see you around,” Aubrey adds with another breathtaking smile. The doors close and Emily leans back against the elevator wall, stunned and confused about everything that has transpired in the last five minutes. She doesn't even notice that the elevator has stopped moving and that she's reached her destination until the doors begin to shut again. She slips her body between the closing doors and out onto the sixth floor. She unlocks the door to her office, plops down at her desk, and opens her laptop. 

She decides to go ahead and start planning Aubrey’s gift since there’s no way she’s going to stop thinking about her interaction with Aubrey any time soon. Emily scours the internet for something, anything, that could help her decide on a gift, but her mind, and also apparently Google, is coming up blank. She comes to the conclusion that she doesn’t actually know anything about Aubrey other than the fact that she has two sick TA’s, so she makes getting to know her the first priority. 

Over the week, Emily spends many of her office hours creating a questionnaire for Aubrey to complete, and in true Emily fashion, she fills every blank space with adorable and festive clipart. Emily has never been a slacker when it comes to holidays, and she loves the Christmas season most. She’s been known to start listening to Christmas music in September, and she can’t help but spread holiday cheer wherever she goes, so it’s natural that her Christmas cheer would spill over onto Aubrey’s questionnaire. 

She looks up Aubrey's class schedule and office hours in the University staff directory, and when she’s sure that Aubrey is in class, Emily descends the two flights of stairs between her office and Aubrey’s. Before she exits the stairwell, she pokes her head out the door and looks both ways to make sure the coast is clear (with James Bond-style suspenseful spy music playing in her head, of course). She sees a tall man walking in her direction, so she ducks back into the stairwell. When he passes and the coast is clear, she all but sprints to the door with the “Dr. Aubrey Posen” sign hanging from it. She pulls a permanent marker from her pocket and begins to write on the envelope that holds the questionnaire. She scribbles “To Dr. Posen. Please complete and leave on the bulletin board in the first floor staff break room. Love, your Secret Santa” on the front of the envelope and slips it under the door leading to Aubrey’s office. She thinks adding “love” might be kind of weird, but it fits her festive mood, so she leaves it.

She tries not to think about Aubrey and the questionnaire too often, but Emily finds herself distracted in most of her classes. She wonders when and if she’ll get a response and what Aubrey’s answers will be. She decides to give Aubrey a week and to not check the break room before then, but after just three days, she finds herself standing outside the room peeking in the small window on the door. The bulletin board is in the back corner of the room, but she strains her eyes as hard as humanly possible and, to her surprise, sees what she thinks is an envelope tacked to the board. 

Emily takes a deep breath and turns the knob to enter the room. She always feels self conscious while using the staff break room; being only 22, she thinks she looks more like a student than some of the actual students at Barden, so she tries to avoid using it at all except to heat up the occasional bowl of soup. She moves through the door and is relieved when she sees only one other person in the room: an elderly woman sitting on a saggy green couch and sipping on a large cup of coffee, never once looking up from her newspaper. She shuffles to the back of the room and removes the envelope from the wall. It’s pristinely white except for the small label on the front that reads: _To Aubrey Posen’s Secret Santa_.

Emily rolls her eyes and smiles. _Of course she would print a label for her Secret Santa envelope_ , she thinks as she exits the room. As soon as she shuts the door to her office she tears into the envelope and begins reading the questionnaire. The first thing she notices is that Aubrey has the neatest cursive writing that Emily has ever seen, no “t” left uncrossed or “I” undotted. The next thing she notices is that most questions have lengthy answers. It becomes more and more clear with each response that Emily reads that Aubrey answered each question thoughtfully. 

When Emily comes to a question at the bottom of the page, she's stunned by the honesty in Aubrey’s answer. When asked about how she enjoyed Christmas as a child, Aubrey answered, “My mom always made a big deal out of Christmas when I was a child, but I never really enjoyed it because my dad was always working. He was deployed for much of my childhood, and he didn't make it home for many Christmases. The best Christmas I had as a kid was the year my mom and I went into the city for the entire day. We spent the whole day together; we drove around the city looking at Christmas lights and drinking hot chocolate and ice skating. Spending the day out having fun with my mom and not sitting at home sulking and missing my dad was the best present I could've asked for.”

The other thing that catches Emily's eye is Aubrey's answer for the “what are your plans for Christmas this year?” question. Aubrey answered that she doesn't have any plans because she's too busy. 

Emily sits back in her desk chair, silently pondering over the information on the paper. After reading the completed questionnaire, Emily has a new understanding of Aubrey and really wants to make this Christmas a special one for her. After a moment, a light bulb goes off in her head. She decides what to get Aubrey right then and there and starts the planning process immediately. 

Weeks pass, and Emily's excitement multiplies with each passing day. Every Friday, Emily leaves a little surprise on Aubrey's desk. The first week of was just a simple Christmas card. The second week, Emily (with the help of her favorite janitor, Walter) snuck into Aubrey's office before she arrived and left a large peppermint mocha with two extra shots of espresso on her desk, a drink that she learned from the questionnaire is Aubrey’s seasonal favorite.

Emily enjoys giving her gifts in secret, but she also pushes herself to get to know Aubrey a little better. One day when she notices Aubrey walking behind her on her way from the law building to their office building, Emily stalls by stopping and tying her shoe, continuing her walk once Aubrey is beside her. Emily is able to carry on a conversation with ease, and she can't help but smile on the elevator ride up to her office, surprised yet pleased with herself. 

She also sits with Aubrey at the University staff meeting. It is held in a large auditorium with hundreds of seats, but when Emily walks through the door, she sees Aubrey immediately about three fourths of the way into the crowd sitting near the front of the room. Aubrey's row is empty, so Emily takes the opportunity to sit with her. They talk about classes and their students and their plans for Christmas while they wait on the meeting to begin. Aubrey talks about how she's already gotten her tree down from the attic but hasn't even had the chance to decorate it because of how busy her schedule has been. Emily picks at her fingernails nervously throughout the meeting, wondering if Aubrey is catching and might figure out that Emily is her Secret Santa, but when Aubrey doesn’t mention anything after the meeting, she tries to push her paranoia out of her mind.

She also tries to push other thoughts about Aubrey from her mind while walking to her car after the meeting. She tries to forget how Aubrey's face lit up when she saw Emily sit down beside her and how nice their conversation was. And how beautiful Aubrey looked in the baby blue sweater she was wearing. _Nope. We are not going down this road, and certainly not with Aubrey Posen_ , she thinks. She shakes her head as if her brain is an Etch a Sketch and thoughts can be erased by a few simple shakes. If there is one person that Emily thinks might be out of her league, it’s Aubrey.

Being friends with Aubrey is remarkably easy. After their first few interactions, they form a pattern. They walk together most mornings, their respective buildings being a mere ten yards away from each other on Barden’s crowded campus. Emily waits the fifteen minutes after her final class of the day on Tuesdays and Thursdays to walk with Aubrey from the law school building to their office building, and Aubrey brings her lunch to Emily’s office on Wednesdays so that they can eat together. They fall into a rhythm and land somewhere between acquaintances and friends, and it makes the latter half of Emily’s semester much more enjoyable than the first.

Emily continus her Secret Santa activities until the big day has finally arrived. She jumps out of her bed on December 15th nervous but too excited to hit the snooze button on her alarm even once. The staff Christmas party is always held on the Saturday night after classes end so that the professors can finally relax after what is almost always a hectic fall semester. Emily does everything she can think of to waste time until time to head to campus. She tidies up her cat Samson’s toys and cleans his litter box, completes every single puzzle in a crossword puzzle book that she finds in the drawer in her coffee table, and even organizes her sock drawer by color and sock length (which, admittedly, is great, but she knows they’ll be in disarray again by Monday). 

When she's folded the last sock and and crossed the last word, she throws on her favorite winter jacket, grabs Aubrey's present from under the tree, and heads to Barden. She parks in the staff parking lot closest to gym; she contemplates waiting in her car for a few minutes so she's not one of the first people there, but she decides against it and heads inside. When she walks into the gym, it has been transformed into an elegant ballroom. White tablecloths are draped over the tables that cover the gym floor. The lights are low with a large crystal chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling illuminating the room and the candles on the tables being the only other source of light. 

After a few minutes the room begins to fill, and the teachers segregate themselves into their usual cliques. Emily begins to wonder if she'll be spending the evening alone, the gym holding more than enough tables and chairs for all of the university staff, until she feels a tap on her shoulder and hears a voice behind her. 

“Is this seat taken?” She hears Aubrey ask as she turns her entire body around to face the girl. She sees Aubrey standing behind her in a beautiful black and gold dress that falls above her knees. Emily can't deny the small gasp that escapes get lips when she sees her. It's unclear to Emily how long she she stares at Aubrey, but finally she gains her composure and moves her purse out of the chair next to hers. 

“Of course not!” Emily practically shouts. Aubrey takes the seat next to Emily, and they chat about finals, and grading, and Barden’s fall graduation that had been held the day before. The conversation flows as easily as it always does which certainly helps Emily relax. She can normally strike up a discussion with anyone, but sometimes she still feels like she turns into a blundering idiot when Aubrey walks into the room, so she's glad she can somehow manage to have an actual conversation with her after seeing how beautiful she looks tonight. 

When she hears someone clear their throat into the mic, Emily turns to see the Dean of Students standing on stage to welcome everyone to the event. The room quiets as the Dean speaks. She goes over some general announcements and thanks everyone for an awesome semester. As she leaves the stage, Christmas music plays through the gym’s speakers and servers bring dinner to the tables. The night goes smoothly, and it's not until the Dean is back on stage talking about Secret Santa being the last event of the evening that Emily remembers the gift she has beside her. 

When it's time, Emily picks up Aubrey's gift and turns to give to her, but she's gone. Emily doesn't have time to wonder where she's gone because in Aubrey's place is Dr. Maddox, the sweet elderly woman Emily had seen in the teachers’ lounge when she went to pick up Aubrey's questionnaire. She hands Emily gift bag, smiles sweetly, and adds a “here you go, Sweety,” before walking back to her table. When she opens it, she finds a music composition book, a hand-knitted scarf, and a batch of homemade snickerdoodles. Emily takes a quick bite of one of the cookies, never able to resist something sweet, and lets out a tiny moan as she chews. 

“That good, huh?” Aubrey asks as she sits back down in her seat. 

“They're so good. And you can have one, but you have to open this first,” Emily says, her mouth half full of cookies, as she hands Aubrey her gift. 

Aubrey sits still for a moment just holding the gift with a puzzled look on her face. 

“Wait. You're my Secret Santa?”

“Yep!” Emily smiles brightly, but the smile disappears just as quickly as it had appeared as a brief moment of fear washes over get entire body. _What if she thinks I've only gotten to know her because I'm get Secret Santa and not because I really wanted to?_

Panic sets in. Secret Santa may have been Emily's initial motivation, but it certainly isn't now. Aubrey opens her gift, but she still looks just as confused. Emily stares down at the gift in Aubrey's hands. It's a beautiful Christmas picture frame, and inside is a calendar for the month of December. On the following Saturday, Emily has written in red pen “Christmas in the city” and drawn Christmas trees inside the box. 

“I thought we could go into the city next weekend and spend the day doing fun Christmas stuff as my gift to you. You could use a break after the semester you've had, and I thought it would be nice to get into the Christmas spirit ,” Emily says nervously. 

All of her fears are instantly alleviated when Aubrey throws her arms around her. As far as Emily knows, Aubrey isn't much of a touchy feely kind of person, but she doesn't question the hug. 

“Of course, if you'd rather go with someone else, I can just give you the money and you two can go. Maybe your boyfriend or someone?” Emily adds as they get up from their seats and follow the crowd out into the parking lot, still wondering how exactly Aubrey feels about the gift. 

“Well, I don't really _do_ boyfriends, and there's actually no one else is rather go with.”


	2. Chapter 2

Emily could've missed that comment from Aubrey entirely had she not been listening well as they walked out to their cars or if the music had been just a smidge higher, but she heard Aubrey loud and clear. _I don't really do boyfriends_. The words play over and over again in her head on a loop for the following week. She analyzed the words until she wondered if she'd even heard Aubrey correctly ( _I guess instead of saying she doesn't ‘do’ boyfriends she could've said she has a ‘new’ boyfriend. Oh geez, Emily, what are you doing? Get it together_.)

When it's finally Saturday and time to spend the day with Aubrey, Emily is so relieved that she can finally stop thinking about it and get it over with that she isn't even nervous. She's out the door and on her way to Aubrey's at 11 AM sharp. Aubrey had given Emily her number after the Christmas party, so she scrolls through their text thread to find where Aubrey had texted Emily her address, types it into her GPS, and arrives at Aubrey's front door in just under 12 minutes. 

Aubrey lives in a beautiful two story cottage-style home with a bright red front door. She exits her car and walks up the three steps leading to the door and knocks loudly, unable to contain her excitement for their trip. The door opens, and Emily is slightly surprised by what she sees behind it. The meticulously curled hairstyle that one would usually see on Aubrey's head has been replaced with a tastefully messy bun. Her normal pant suit has been traded out for an oversized sweater and leggings, and contacts (which Aubrey apparently wears) have been exchanged for brown-rimmed glasses. 

Her knees buckle slightly, and she almost drops the box she's holding when she sees how beautiful Aubrey looks. Aubrey grabs the box from her and leads her over the threshold of the front door and into her living room. Her house is cozy and spectacularly clean, not one thing out of place. 

“What’s in here?” Aubrey asks, giving the box a gentle shake before setting it on the coffee table. 

“That’s for later. You’ll find out after we get back, but for now let’s get on the road.” Emily smirks as she opens the front door and motions for Aubrey to walk through. 

The drive to Atlanta isn't a terribly long one. It would've been a twenty minute drive tops without traffic, but with Atlanta traffic being some of the worst in the country, especially during the holidays, it takes the duo just over forty-five minutes to get into the city. 

Emily parks her car in a parking lot near the center of town. They walk through the streets of Atlanta together admiring the Christmas decorations that adorn almost every storefront. Their first stop is an ice skating rink. Emily has to convince Aubrey to get out onto the ice, but once they’re both skating, Emily can’t help but notice that Aubrey is a decidedly talented skater. Emily on the other hand could use some help. After her third fall, Aubrey grabs Emily's hands to try to steady her. They skate a total of about six feet before Emily loses her balance again and goes flying back down onto the ice, dragging Aubrey down on top of her. They both lay there laughing until an ice rink employee skates over to them to help them up. 

They take this as a sign to end their skating adventure for the day, so they exit the rink, remove their skates, and begin walking down the sidewalk once again. Aubrey asks lots of questions; Emily thinks she must like to be in control and always have a plan, so she gives her sufficient enough answers to calm get nerves but keeps them vague enough to not spoil the rest is the day’s surprises. 

After walking just three blocks, they arrive at a modern-looking coffee shop called Drip. When the warm air hits their faces as they walk into the store they're both thankful for a break from the brutal winter wind. Emily orders for both of them, and Aubrey's eyebrows shoot up in surprise when she realizes that Emily already knows what she wants. They munch on snacks as they wait for their coffees, an iced gingerbread man for Aubrey and a double chocolate, chocolate chip muffin for Emily. When their coffees are ready, they head back out onto the street and walk back in the direction from which they came. 

To Emily’s surprise, the walk to their next destination takes longer than expected, but Aubrey is a good sport. She points out the Christmas lights each time she sees a new arrangement of decorations, and she hums along to the Christmas music that they hear playing as they walk by various shops and stores. When their coffee is long gone, Emily notices that Aubrey looks rather cold, so when they stop to admire the huge Christmas tree in the middle of the park, Emily walks behind her, takes the scarf from around her own neck, and wraps it around Aubrey’s neck. She smiles and breathes a sigh of relief as her body begins to warm under the scarf. 

As they approach their final destination, they look up at the massive ferris wheel that overlooks the city. The workers, all dressed in red and green elf hats, welcome them warmly. They don’t have to wait in line since Emily has pre-purchased the tickets, so they wait briefly for the ride to come to a stop, and they are ushered into one of the cabins almost immediately.

The cabin is enclosed and heated and has soft Christmas music playing in the background. They sit in a comfortable silence as they look out over the city until Aubrey finally speaks.

“You know, I think this is the best day I’ve had in a really long time,” she says, still looking out the window.

“Really?” 

“Yeah, really.” Emily can hear the smile in Aubrey’s voice even if she can’t see her face. “I get so wrapped up in school and life, and I don’t really ever take days to just relax and have fun. And I certainly don’t spend enough time with my friends and people that I care about, so today really was just the best.”

Aubrey turns and looks at Emily while she speaks, and their eyes meet. Emily swears she feels something between them, but she blushes and looks away, and the moment is gone. 

“I’m really glad you’ve had a good time. I know I sure have.” Emily grins, and as they exit the cabin, flakes of snow start falling around them and gathering in their hair. “The day isn’t over yet, though. Come on!”

Emily loops her arm into Aubrey’s and pulls her down the sidewalk. They take a shortcut back to the car through the park, walking arm-in-arm the entire way back (only stopping once so Emily could catch a snowflake on her tongue). The drive home felt like no time, even if they did have to drive more cautiously because of the snow. When they arrive back at Aubrey’s, a thin blanket of snow has covered her yard. Emily turns off the car and looks over at Aubrey, “are you ready to know what’s in the box?”

“Of course I am.” 

Inside, Emily instructs Aubrey to stay out of the living room until she’s finished, so Aubrey retires to the kitchen to make some snacks and hot tea to warm them up. After about ten minutes, she allows Aubrey to enter the living room, but she doesn’t notice anything different. She looks at Emily with one cocked eyebrow, and Emily takes that as her cue. She presses the button on the remote she’s been holding, and the once dark and gloomy Christmas tree that sits in the corner of Aubrey’s living room fills with light. Aubrey sits down cross-legged on the couch, cradling her cup of tea and admiring Emily’s work.

“It’s not done yet, we still have to decorate it,” Emily says excitedly. She’s visibly proud of herself and how happy she knows she’s making Aubrey.

“You don’t have anything else to do. You sit right here and relax, and I’ll decorate. Aubrey stands and hands her a cup of tea from the table and motions for her to sit on the couch. Emily being the busy-body that she is, takes a few sips of the tea but soon sits her mug down to get up and explore the house. She examines the pictures on the wall and wanders into the kitchen to snack on the treats that Aubrey had laid out for them. Her eyes light up when she notices the upright piano sitting in the foyer. She sits down and begins to play “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” on the piano. After the first verse, Aubrey sings along. After playing through all of the Christmas songs she can play from memory, Emily turns on Christmas music on her phone and walks back into the living room.

“I didn’t know you could sing like that,” Emily says as she plops down onto the couch.

“I didn’t know you could _play_ like that,” Aubrey quips. She sits down by Emily’s side, and the two sit and admire the fully-decorated tree for a few moments. They sit back with their heads resting on the back of the couch and stretch out their legs and prop their feet up on the coffee table. Aubrey pulls the blanket down off of the back of the couch and covers them up with it. This time it’s Emily who breaks the silence.

“After becoming friends with you and spending time with you, I just can’t figure out why you don’t have more friends at Barden.” It’s a random remark, but it’s been weighing on Emily’s mind for some time. Aubrey pauses for a long moment, and Emily looks over at her, hoping she hasn’t overstepped.

“I don’t know really. I guess one of the things my dad did teach me was how to be career-oriented. I guess I feel like if I let my guard down and let people see the other side of me they won’t take me as seriously.”

“You let me see that side of you,” Emily says with a smile and nudges Aubrey’s foot with her own.

“Yeah, I can’t really explain that one. Something about you made me want to get to know you from the moment I saw you holding the door open for me way back when.” Aubrey turns her head to look over at Emily, both of their heads still resting on the back of the couch.

“Well, I’m really glad you did.” Emily turns her head to stare back at Aubrey. Their eyes lock, and before another thought can pass through Emily’s mind, Aubrey is leaning in and kissing her, and then there’s no use in Emily trying to think because she can’t possibly form coherent thoughts while Aubrey Posen is kissing her. Emily smiles into the kiss and relishes in it, enjoying every second of it. When they finally pull apart, Emily rests her head on Aubrey’s shoulder, and they both just sit on the couch smiling to themselves. 

When the sun starts to set, Emily decides she better head home in case it gets colder and the roads get icy. As she walks out the door, Aubrey gives her a hug and thanks her one more time for the amazing day. Before she ducks into her car, she hears Aubrey shout something from where she’s standing on her porch:

“Hey! If you’re not doing anything, would you want to come over on Christmas morning?” the ever-confident Aubrey not beating around the bush about what she wants.

“You haven’t seen my tree yet, how about you come over and I’ll make you breakfast?”

“It’s a date,” Aubrey says with a smile as she retreats back into her house. Emily smiles all the way home, and she can’t help but think that she might’ve been Aubrey’s Secret Santa, but becoming friends with Aubrey (or whatever they might become) is the best present she could’ve gotten this Christmas.


End file.
